The WSJ published a very thorough recounting of the false stories of Haitian immigrants eating pets, which has been amplified by both JD Vance and Donald Trump.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio—City Manager Bryan Heck fielded an unusual question at City Hall on the morning of Sept. 9, from a staff member of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance. The staffer called to ask if there was any truth to bizarre rumors about Haitian immigrants and pets in Springfield.
“He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” recalled Heck. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.”
By then, Vance had already posted about the rumors to his 1.9 million followers on X. Yet he kept the post up, and repeated an even more insistent version of the claim the next morning.
That night, former President Donald Trump stood on a Philadelphia debate stage and shot the rumor into the stratosphere. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said to 67 million viewers. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating, the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in this country.”
The city has been bombarded by bomb threats, parents keeping their children home fearing their safety, white supremacist goons roaming the streets. The father of the child killed in a bus crash driven by a Haitian immigrant has begged Republican politicians, including Vance, to stop invoking his son's death for political gain.
And JD Vance knew from the beginning that these stories about Haitian immigrants were lies, and he went with it anyway. Truly disgusting, and especially mind-boggling that he would do this to his own constituents.
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio—City Manager Bryan Heck fielded an unusual question at City Hall on the morning of Sept. 9, from a staff member of Republican vice presidential nominee JD Vance. The staffer called to ask if there was any truth to bizarre rumors about Haitian immigrants and pets in Springfield.
“He asked point-blank, ‘Are the rumors true of pets being taken and eaten?’” recalled Heck. “I told him no. There was no verifiable evidence or reports to show this was true. I told them these claims were baseless.”
By then, Vance had already posted about the rumors to his 1.9 million followers on X. Yet he kept the post up, and repeated an even more insistent version of the claim the next morning.
That night, former President Donald Trump stood on a Philadelphia debate stage and shot the rumor into the stratosphere. “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs,” he said to 67 million viewers. “The people that came in, they’re eating the cats. They’re eating, they’re eating, the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in this country.”
The city has been bombarded by bomb threats, parents keeping their children home fearing their safety, white supremacist goons roaming the streets. The father of the child killed in a bus crash driven by a Haitian immigrant has begged Republican politicians, including Vance, to stop invoking his son's death for political gain.
And JD Vance knew from the beginning that these stories about Haitian immigrants were lies, and he went with it anyway. Truly disgusting, and especially mind-boggling that he would do this to his own constituents.
